According to the testimony of officer T. Eikermann, McElroy admitted that he hit a man identified as “Kyle” once in the face, but he expressed remorse and explained that he did not mean to cause injury.

The altercation happened after 6:30 p.m. on November 22, 2013, in a trailer park located at 400 N. Melrose Avenue in Vista.

McElroy said he’d had dinner with a woman whom both men had dated, and when he pulled up at the woman’s home to drop her off he saw a man waiting there. McElroy said he became angry when he saw the other man, according to the deputy.

The alleged victim, Kyle, testified that he was standing by his car under a carport when he was approached by a man whom he had never seen before.

“He got up in my face. He was very irate,” according to Kyle. “I was trying to talk him down. I didn’t want a problem.”

Kyle, 26, who described himself as 6´1˝ and 175 pounds, said the other man was taller and larger.

The irate man turned away and “that’s the last thing I remember,” Kyle said. “I remember his back to me, and then I woke up on the ground.”

He had a cut on the back of his head and chipped teeth and he was taken away by ambulance.

“The hospital said I was bleeding in my brain,” according to Kyle, who reported the gash in his head was closed with three or four staples and that he was in hospital for two days.

Defense attorney Tom Connolly said, “This was a fight over a girl, that’s what it was.” Connolly suggested that the men exchanged words and there was a single punch and that Kyle got hurt when his head hit the ground.

“There was not even a black eye,” the attorney declared while asking the court to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor.

Superior Court judge Earl H. Maas III declared that a jury would decide the degree of offense and ordered McElroy back to San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse on July 8, to set a date for trial.